One day, though, I got to ask him the big question: "Tell me sir, why do you think they haven't given you the Nobel prize?" After a long pause and an amused smile, he replied, "Well, it is a European prize, and only once in a while, when they find you worthy, do they give it out to non-Europeans".
Before Dad's Army made the catchphrase "may I be excused sir?" famous, Ridley wrote more than 30 plays, of which only The Ghost Train achieved notable success, running for 665 performances at St Martin's theatre and being adapted for the cinema three times.
Related: Sir Bradley Wiggins smashes Alex Dowsett's hour record – in pictures The Hour is better known for pressure of a different kind: the relentless need for the rider to maintain an even pace, while on the edge of cracking.
The uniform worn by his commanding officer, General Sir Richard Nelson "Windy" Gale, is now displayed in a museum that Prince Charles opened in 2000 and the old Pegasus Bridge, replaced by a new bridge in 1994 and left to rot in a field, has been cleaned up and preserved.
The treatment of children in church-run residential homes is a key concern of the investigation, which is chaired by the retired judge Sir Anthony Hart and is considering cases between 1922 – when Northern Ireland was founded – and 1995.
It is intended to recall the grim statement by Sir Edward Grey, then foreign secretary, in August 1914: "The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime".
A significant thread in the recent politics of Tower Hamlets is the legacy of the Battle of Cable Street, the legendary East End street confrontation involving the police, local Jewish and Irish workers and activists, and Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists that took place on 4 October, 1936.
Barry Townsley, a stockbroker who lent £1m; Sir David Garrard, a property developer who lent £2.3m; Chai Patel, head of the Priory Clinics, who lent £1.5m; and Sir Gulam Noon, the so-called "curry king", who lent £250,000.
An initial report by Sir Roy warned this week that the current funding structure, supplemented by fare income of around £6bn a year, could be "unsustainable".
As well as running the city's two municipal galleries, she has been appointed cultural attache by Sir Howard Bernstein, the council chief executive.
Last year Prof Nick Black of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and I were asked by Sir Bruce Keogh, medical director of NHS England, to investigate 14 NHS trusts that were giving concern because they had high mortality rates.
